Means of connecting pusher boat and barge

ABSTRACT

A means of connecting a pusher boat and a barge in which the bow of the pusher boat is inserted into a notch formed in the stern portion of the barge, and movable pressing shoes attached on both sides of the bow of said pusher boat are pressed into vertical connecting channels formed within said notch of the barge, thereby the pusher boat and the barge being connected easily and firmly.

United States Patent [191 Yamaguchi [4 1 Oct. 29, 1974 MEANS OFCONNECTING PUSHER BOAT AND BARGE [75] Inventor: Takuma Yamaguchi,Narashino,

Japan [73] Assignee: Taisei Sekki Komu K.K., Tokyo,

Japan I [22] Filed: Jan. 26, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 326,663

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Mar. 6, 1972 Japan 47-022361 [52]US. Cl 114/235 R [51] Int. Cl 1363b 21/62 [58] Field of Search 114/235R, 77 R, 43.5,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,139,185 12/1938 Engel24/263 DH 3,370,564 2/1968 Archer et al 114/77 R 3,512,495 5/1970Fletcher 114/235 R FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 116,706 12/1918 GreatBritain 114/77 R Primary Examiner-George E. A. Halvosa AssistantExaminer-Edward R. Kazenske Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Hans Berman [5 7ABSTRACT A means of connecting a pusher boat and a barge in which thebow of the pusher boat is inserted into a notch formed in the sternportion of the barge, and movable pressing shoes attached on both sidesof the bow of said pusher boat are pressed into vertical connectingchannels formed within said notch of the barge, thereby the pusher boatand the barge being connected easily and firmly.

7 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PAIENTEDnm 29 m4 I/I/IIII/ Fig.4

MEANS OF CONNECTING PUSIIER BOAT AND BARGE This invention relates to ameans of connecting a pusher boat and a barge.

Barges are commonly used to transport bulky freight on rivers and canalsor in harbours. There are two conventional methods to move the barges,that is, one is to tow by a tug boat and the other is to push by apusher boat. The present invention relates to the latter case in whichthe barge is pushed by a pusher boat where said barge is connected withthe pusher boat to form a pusher-barge combination system. Moreparticularly, the invention relates to an improved pusher-bargecombination system with excellent performance.

In general, the method of connecting the pusher boat and the barge bymeans of ropes has been widely employed. In this method, however, thestern portion of the barge and the bow portion of the pusher boat comein contact with each other, thus the vertical relative sliding of saidportions can not be avoided. This relative sliding of the twowater-crafts causes heavy wear and tear of the buffer means which arefitted on and between said two water-crafts. Furthermore, when thepositions of fixing rope ends are not properly selected, the connectingropes are often subjected to undue and excessive tension owing to therelative pitching motions and partly the relative yawing motions betweenthese two water-crafts, and the difficulties of the navigations in aheavy seaway by using such pusher-barge combination systems areprincipally due to the abovementioned disadvantages.

In order to overcome these disadvantages, it has been proposed that thestern portion of the barge be provided with a notch to receive the bowportion of the pusher boat, and that the two water-crafts be firmlyconnected irrespective of their draft relationship. However, it has beenfound that some difficulties are involved in the relativepre-positioning which is an indispensable step of preparation for theconnection work.

Accordingly, the present invention is proposed in order to solve theabove-mentioned problems, where the principal object of the presentinvention is to provide an improved means of connecting a pusher boatand a barge in which the connecting work of the means of the inventioncan be smoothly and easily carried out irrespective of the draftrelationship between the two water-crafts, and any undue stress withinthe connecting means can be eliminated so as to prevent damages to theconnecting members.

Another object of the present invention is to propose an improvedconnecting means in which the relative pre-positioning between thepusher boat and the barge during the connecting work can beautomatically performed.

Pursuant to the above objects of the invention, the means of connectinga pusher boat and a barge is constructed as follows. That is, the sternportion of the barge is provided with a notch or a concave, into whichthe bow portion of the pusher boat can be received. The size of saidnotch is such that the bow portion of the pusher boat can be receivedwith some suitable clearance being left around said bow portion. Bothsides of the wall of said notch are provided with vertical channelswhich open to the inside of the notch.

Both sides of the bow portion of the pusher boat are provided withhydraulically operated connecting pins, respectively, which can berotated relative to said pusher boat. The free ends of the connectingpins are provided with respective pressing shoes which are frictionallyengaged with the above-mentioned vertical channels within said notch,thus said two water-crafts can be firmly connected by the engagement ofthe pressing shoes with the vertical channels.

Between the pusher boat and the barge which are connected by thusconstructed connecting means, there exists only relative pitchingmotion, and other relative motions such as rolling, yawing, heaving,drifting and surging are not permitted. Further, the displacement of thepusher boat is generally one tenth or less of the full load displacementof the barge, so that all motions of the pusher boat other than thepitching thereof follow the motions of the barge, therefore the overallmotion of the pusher boat becomes gentle and slow, and the operation andcontrol of the pusher boat can be made easy. Still further, thestructure of the connecting means, more particularly, the frictionalengagement of said vertical channels and said pressing shoes of theconnecting pins can be formed in any draft relationship without causingexcessive stress.

Furthermore, in the connecting means of the present invention, the widthbetween the outer edges of said connecting channels is made wider thanthe external width of said pressing shoes in the retracted position,while the width between the inner edges of said connecting channels ismade narrower than said external width of the retracted pressing shoes.Thereby, in the pre-positioning step of two water-crafts, said pressingshoes are passed through said outer edges of the channels and arestopped by said inner edges of the channels, and at this position, saidpressing shoes are not moved further into the notch, so that thewater-crafts can be connected only by pushing out said pressing shoesinto said vertical channels without any trouble-v some pre-positioningwork of the water-crafts. Accordingly, the above-mentioned second objectof the invention can be attained.

As disclosed in the above, the pusher boat and the barge can beconnected in any draft relationship with ease and safety by employingthe connecting means of the present invention, in addition to that thedamages to the connecting members due to abrupt variations of draftrelationship can be prevented and the prepositioning of the water-craftscan be attained automatically.

Other and further objects and features of the invention will become moreapparent upon the understanding of the illustrative embodiments about tobe described or will be indicated in the appended claims, and variousadvantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the artupon employment of the invention in practice. Two embodiments are shownin the drawings, in which the same parts are indicated by the samenumerals. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of one embodiment of the presentinvention before connection;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of said embodiment after connection;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the embodiment taken along theline A-A in FIG. 2; and

FIGS. 4, Sand 6 are schematic plan views of another embodiment with thepre-positioning arrangement showing several steps of the process ofconnecting operation.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 to 3, which show the first embodiment of thepresent invention, the barge 1 is provided with a notch or well 2 at itsstem or rear portion for receiving the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3. Theconfiguration and size of said notch 2 may be such that, when the pusherboat 3 is connected to the barge 1, a proper clearance is left betweenthe bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 and said notch 2 of the barge 1. Eachside of the inner wall of said notch 2 is provided with a connectingchannel 5 having preferably a trapezoidal cross-section, opening towardsthe inside of the notch 2 and extending in vertical direction. A pair ofsaid channels 5 on both sides of the inner wall of the notch 2 forms apressure engagement portion for receiving, at any vertical position, therespective pressing shoes on both sides of the bow 4 of the pusher boat3, which will be explained further hereinafter.

Each side of the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 is provided with acylindrical connecting pin 7 which is supported by and slides along arelatively long bearing 6 being fixed on each side of said bow portion.The outboard end of this connecting pin 7 is pivotally fitted with apressing shoe 8 by means of a horizontal pin 9, spherical bearing or thelike on the back side of said shoe. This pressing shoe 8 has across-section corresponding to that of said connecting channel 5 and anappropriate length, further the outer surfaces thereof which are to beengaged with the inner surfaces of said channel 5, are covered withhigh-friction material 10 such as rubber material. When the barge l andthe pusher boat 3 are connected with each other, the inclined sidesurfaces of said pressing shoe 8, assisted by their wedge effect, arefirmly engaged with the inclined side surfaces of said connectingchannel 5 to give a sufficient friction force. Said connecting pin 7 canbe forced out and retracted by means of a hydraulic means, such ashydraulic cylinder 11 or the like, and it can be also kept at theoutermost position by hydraulic pressure from a pump, a pressureaccumulator or the like.

in the following, the functions and operations of the above explainedconnecting means of the present invention will be disclosed. Before theconnection of the barge l and the pusher boat 3, the connecting pins 7at the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 and the pivotable pressing shoes 8 atthe top portions of said pins 7 are retracted as shown in FIG. 1. Inthis position, the width between both outer ends of said pressing shoes8 is smaller than the width of the entrance portion of said well ornotch 2, so that the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 can be easily insertedinto said notch 2 of the barge 1. At the same time, the position of saidshoes 8 is brought in line with the above-mentioned connecting channels5 by operating the pusher boat. And after this relative pre-positioning,the hydraulic cylinders 11 are actuated to move outwards the connectingpins 7, thereby the pressing shoes 8 on said pins 7 are pushed into theconnecting channels 5. The channels 5 and the shoes 8 decrease in widthaway from the notch in the horizontal plane of FIG. 2. in this position,the inclined side surfaces of each pressing shoe 8 are forced intocontact with the inclined inner surfaces of the connecting channel 5 inwedge-like manner and they are connected tightly by the friction forcewithout causing any sliding of said two members, thereafter the pressurewithin said cylinders 11 is kept as it is by a pump or a pressureaccumulator. Thus the connection work between the barge l and the pusherboat 3 can be completed.

When both water-crafts are connected in the above manner, no relativerotation between the barge l and the pressing shoes 8, i.e., theconnecting pins 7 is possible. However, the relative motioncorresponding to the relative pitching between two water-crafts iscaused between the connecting pins 7 and the hull of the pusher boat 3.Thus, in order to allow this relative motion, the inboard ends of saidconnecting pins 7 are connected to the force transmitting pieces 12 ofthe hydraulic cylinders 11, respectively, by means of proper couplingmembers 13 which permit the relative rotational motions. Thereby, therelative pitching of two water-crafts can be permitted without causingany trouble or disorder. When the connection is slightly loosened andthe draft relationship of two water-crafts is changed, the positions ofthe pressing shoes 8 in the connecting channels 5 can vary so as tofollow the change of the draft relationship, therefore the connectingmeans of the present invention will not be subjected to any undue stressand can be protected from the occurence of damages.

As disclosed in the above, the first embodiment of the present inventionhas excellent performance as a means of connecting a pusher boat and abarge, however one problem is left yet unsolved. That is, in therelative pre-positioning of the water-crafts, the abovementionedpressing shoes 8 must be brought into line with the connecting channels5, and this operation is not so easy particularly in a wavy condition.Therefore, it is desirable to perform this preparation work withoutgreat loss of time and labour. Accordingly, the second embodiment of thepresent invention includes the supplementary arrangement for theabove-mentioned relative pre-positioning in order to realize easy andquick connecting operation, which will be explained hereinafter withparticular reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

In said figures, the connecting channel 5 of the barge l is providedwith inner edge 5b and outer edge 5a. As will be understood from thedrawings, the width between two inner edges Sb of the channels 5 issmaller than that between two outer edges 5a. Further, the width of thenotch 2 at the position of the inner edges 5b is smaller than the widthbetween the outer ends of both pressing shoes 8 in the retractedposition, while the width of the notch at the position of the outeredges 5a is larger than the width between the outer ends of bothpressing shoes 8 in the retracted position. And the width of the notch 2in the portion forward of the connecting channels 5 is of course madelarger than the width of the bow of the pusher boat 3 to be receivedtherein, and the width between the outer ends of both retracted pressingshoes 8 of the pusher boat 3 is determined in such a manner that, whenthe bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 is received within the notch 2 of thebarge l for the preparation for connection, the pressing shoe 8 of anyside cannot go forward to the bottom of the notch 2 beyond the inneredge 5b, even when the hull of the pusher boat 3 is moved aside by wavesor else against one side wall of said notch 2.

The portion of the connecting channels 5 of the barge 1 beingconstructed as stated in the above, when the barge 1 is connected to thepusher boat 3, the pusher boat 3 is stopped at the position shown inFIG.

5 in which the pressing shoes 8 of the pusher boat 3 are pushed againstthe rearward faces of the inner edges 5b of the connecting channel 5,and the pusher boat cannot move forward further. Accordingly, if thepusher boat 3 keeps its impellent force so as not to be moved backward,the relative positioning of both water-crafts, that is, the relativepositioning of the pressing shoes 8 and the connecting channels 5 can beautomatically establislied. So that, by carrying out the Serialprocedure as explained with regard to the foregoing embodiment, bothwater-crafts can be connected as shown in FlG. 6.

It is to be noted that the pusher boat and the barge can be effectivelyconnected by using the connecting means of the present invention, inaddition to that, the relative pre-positioning of both water-craftswhich is indispensable for the connecting work can be attainedautomatically, and the construction, characteristics and functions ofthis connecting means may be fully understood from the description ofthe embodiments in the above.

It should be emphasized, however, that the specific embodimentsdescribed and shown herein are intended as merely illustrative and in noway restrictive of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A combination of watercraft comprising:

a. a barge having a rear portion formed with a notch open in a rearwarddirection and with two vertically elongated channels open toward saidnotch and facing each other transversely of said direction;

b. a pusher boat having a bow portion of a configuration and size to bereceived in said notch;

c. two pressing shoes mounted on said bow portion;

and

d. pressure-fluid-operated actuating means for moving said pressingshoes in respective, opposite directions between retracted positionsoutside said channels and inserted positions in said channelsrespectively while said bow portion is received in said notch, saidactuating means holding said pressing shoes in frictional contact withsaid rear portion in said channels under sufficient pressure to preventrelative rotation between said pressing shoes and said rear portion whensaid pressing shoes are in the inserted position, said pressing shoesbeing rotatable on said how portion to permit relative pitching movementof said barge and of said pusher boat.

2. A combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said actuating meansinclude motor means operated by fluid under pressure, and two elongatedconnecting pins mounted on said bow portion for axial movement by saidmotor means and for rotation, said pins having respective free endportions, and pivot means pivotally connecting said pressing shoes tosaid free end portions respectively.

3. A combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said rear portion hastwo pairs of vertically elongated edges in said notch, the edges of eachpair bounding a respective one of said channels therebetween, one edgeof each pair being offset rearwardly from the other edge, and the widthof said notch between said rearwardly offset edges being substantiallygreater than the width of said notch between said other edges, the widthof said notch between said other edges being smaller than the width ofsaid pusher boat as measured over the retracted pressing shoes.

4. A combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said channels decreasein width away from said notch in a horizontal plane.

5. A combination as set forth in claim 4, wherein said pressing shoestaper inward of said channels in said plane when in the insertedposition and wedgingly engage said rear portion under said sufficientpressure.

6. A combination as set forth in claim 5, wherein said channels are oftrapezoidal cross section.

7. A combination as set forth in claim 6, further comprising ahigh-friction coating of rubber on each of said pressing shoes.

1. A combination of watercraft comprising: a. a barge having a rearportion formed with a notch open in a rearward direction and with twoverticaLly elongated channels open toward said notch and facing eachother transversely of said direction; b. a pusher boat having a bowportion of a configuration and size to be received in said notch; c. twopressing shoes mounted on said bow portion; and d.pressure-fluid-operated actuating means for moving said pressing shoesin respective, opposite directions between retracted positions outsidesaid channels and inserted positions in said channels respectively whilesaid bow portion is received in said notch, said actuating means holdingsaid pressing shoes in frictional contact with said rear portion in saidchannels under sufficient pressure to prevent relative rotation betweensaid pressing shoes and said rear portion when said pressing shoes arein the inserted position, said pressing shoes being rotatable on saidbow portion to permit relative pitching movement of said barge and ofsaid pusher boat.
 2. A combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein saidactuating means include motor means operated by fluid under pressure,and two elongated connecting pins mounted on said bow portion for axialmovement by said motor means and for rotation, said pins havingrespective free end portions, and pivot means pivotally connecting saidpressing shoes to said free end portions respectively.
 3. A combinationas set forth in claim 1, wherein said rear portion has two pairs ofvertically elongated edges in said notch, the edges of each pairbounding a respective one of said channels therebetween, one edge ofeach pair being offset rearwardly from the other edge, and the width ofsaid notch between said rearwardly offset edges being substantiallygreater than the width of said notch between said other edges, the widthof said notch between said other edges being smaller than the width ofsaid pusher boat as measured over the retracted pressing shoes.
 4. Acombination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said channels decrease inwidth away from said notch in a horizontal plane.
 5. A combination asset forth in claim 4, wherein said pressing shoes taper inward of saidchannels in said plane when in the inserted position and wedginglyengage said rear portion under said sufficient pressure.
 6. Acombination as set forth in claim 5, wherein said channels are oftrapezoidal cross section.
 7. A combination as set forth in claim 6,further comprising a high-friction coating of rubber on each of saidpressing shoes.